With /join 2-6 players can join the game. With /start the game begins. alternative, you can use the Game Tool!
Tongiaki is set in AD 300. The players explore 16 islands by sailing between them. They start on the home isle of TONGA. During their turn, players add more ships to the beaches on these islands. As soon as a beach becomes full, the ships depart. When the ships depart, they move to a tile drawn at random form the original pool of 16 sea and 16 island tiles. For each island where a player has at least one ship at the end of the game, that player scores the island's point value.
At the beginning of the game, players place two ships each on TONGA.
On your turn, you choose one of three possible actions:
The red ship in the magnifying glass icon indicates that you have chosen to increase ships on an island. To activate this, on your turn, simply click on an island where you have at least one ship. You may place as many ships from your stock as you already have on that island. You cannot, however have more ships than would take to fill the island you selected. You must distribute the ships evenly.
The wooden mask in the magnifying glass icon indicates that you have chosen to become king of that island. After this action, click on an island where you have the only ships. You will be the only player to score on this island and no one can place ships on this island any more. You can only become king of two islands during the game.
It is possible that through circumstances, a player is cut off and cannot populate new islands. When this happens you may start one ship on a new island. Select as your action the island with a red 'X.' Tiles will now be added until an island tile appears. You can then add one ship to it and end your turn.
These rules are the fundamentals of Tongiaki.
If no beach of the island is fully occupied after a increasing, your turn ends.
When any beach is full, all ships on that beach must migrate.
To emigrate, click on the pier leading off the full beach in the direction you wish to travel. Some beaches have two piers, so try to be precise as you might pick the wrong one by mistake. If more than one beach is full, you can decide the order. If no tile already read in the desired direction, a new tile is placed.
If you place a sea tile or if the emigration leads across a sea tile already played, then the ships sail via the white line connected to the place of emigration. The journey is only succesful if the number of different colours of ships leaving the island is greater than or equal to the number shown on the white line. The number on the white line shows how dangerous it is to travel on it:
# on white line | Success of Travel |
2 | at least 2 different colours depart the beach |
3 | at least 3 different colours depart the beach |
4 | at least 4 different colours depart the beach |
If the voyage is successful, the player uncovers another tile. If it is a sea tile then he must again pass the value of the white line. This continues until the ships either reach an island or the ships are wrecked. If the voyage fails, the ships are removed from the board and assured to their owners.
In this example, two colours emigrated from the upper beach. Since a 4 was uncovered, the voyage did not succeed.
In this example, 2 different colours emigrated from the beach of size 2 on the #3 island (bottom right). The lower pier/dock was selected which uncovered the #5 island. The sea tile was uncovered first (with a successful voyage) followed by the #5 tile being uncovered.
When a new island tile is played or if the emigration leads to an existing island, the active players distributes all the successful ships evenly on the beaches of the new island. If sufficient free spaces are not available, the extra ships go back to their owners.
After land fall and distribution, further beaches may be full on this new island. The active player continues play and emigrates this beach. The chain play is continued until no beach is completely full.
All emigrating ships which arrive at a king's island have to move back to the island that they came from. When this happens, those ships can be redistributed on that island. TONGA cannot become a king's island and has no point value anyway.
The game ends when either the last sea or the last island is placed and the current action finished. (There are 16 sea tiles and 16 island tiles in total.)
If the last tile is an island, the distribution still takes place on it.
If the last tile is a sea tile, the ships still fulfill their journey.
Now all players receive their score: for each island on which they have at least one ship, they obtain the point value of the island. The player with most points wins. If there is a tie for 1st place then the player who is represented on the most islands wins. If it is still a tie then the player with the fewest ships on the board (counting a king's island as 1 ship) wins.
The scoreboard is located at the upper right of the screen.
Here each player is named adjacent the number of ships they have left (S) and the number of points scores (P). The latter is only shown at the end of the game.
You can see how many islands and sea tiles have been played. The tile draw is shown by a grey icon and its identity #.
Here are some special circumstances and associated rules. They are rare. You should only need to read this section as a reference during game play.
If at the beginning of your turn, you have no ships on the board then you must either place two ships at Tonga or place one new boat at any other island.
If all 15 of your ships are on the board at the beginning of your turn, you can take ONLY ONE ship from any other island, in order to increase at the island of your choice.
If a player wishes to increase at an island and does not have enough ships to meet the allowed size in increase, he just plays what he has this turn.
A chain play can become infinite. This can happen, if an island is surrounded by tiles, which lead back the island. All ships of this island are removed and corrected to the owners. The island tile is then removed from the game.
If, as a result of this:
then you reveal and place sea tiles until you get an island tile and then place that island tile whereever you wish as long as it is connected to another tile. Play then passes to the next player.
A chain is considered not to be an endless loop if, even though one of your options is endless, you must then choose an option which will end that turn.
In the picture, left, you can see the active click zones where you can place ships when increasing. You should therefore be careful when clicking on the correct segment to play that action.
If you place ships on broader beaches, you should always click on the center of the beach, even if spaces are available on the very edge of that beach. A location on that beach is automatically populated.